Group to lobby for Labour Code modification

Seven employer confederations will soon create a group to lobby for the modification of the Labour Code in Parliament, given that the enforcement of this normative act yields a series of negative consequences for the business environment.
“The Labour Code is asymmetrically built, as it grants too many rights to the work force and insufficient rights to the employers,” Ovidiu Nicolescu, chairman of the National Council of Private Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Romania (CNIPMMR), yesterday said.
Representatives of the seven confederations – CNIPMMR, the Romanian Industry Employers Confederation (CONPIROM), the National Council of Employers in Romania (CONPR), the Romanian National Employers Association (PNR, the General Union of Industrialists in Romania (UGIR), the General Union of Industrialists in Romania 1903 (UGIR 1903) and the National Confederation of Employers in Romania (CNPR), feel this asymmetry is bound to produce a series of negative effects.
“First of all it will induce a lower labour productivity given that the number of non-working days has gone up. People in Romania work about 220 days a year on the average, which is the lowest working period in the entire Europe. Second of all, the elimination of civil conventions has boosted taxation from 13.5% to 53.25%, ” Nicolescu said. One of the effects of this taxation increase was the growth of the black market labour, he added. “At the same time, the obligation to consult the unions of the employee representatives in the decision-making process makes it hard for the management to be efficient, and the penalty system the normative act introduces might trigger the bankruptcy of some small companies,” Nicolescu said.
The representatives of the seven employer confederations say the normative act is a victory of the unions. They say the current Labour Code is not the one they agreed to, albeit Labour minister Marian Sarbu says otherwise.
“When we signed before the Prime Minister, we knew the text was going to end up in Parliament where it could be modified and would not be enacted by the Government assuming responsibility. We agreed on a framework text that was supposed to go to Parliament,” Marian Dumitrescu, CNIPMMR vice-president said.
“We participated in the negotiations and came up with a lot of proposals. We signed a month before the summit in Prague, thinking we would negotiate and improve the Labour Code. We are now trying to sit down and talk with the unions,” Florian Costache, PNR representative said.
The employers’ representatives said the Labour Ministry had assured them a series of provisions in the Labour Code were due for revision, adding some of the union leaders themselves admitted the new Code was not that beneficial for employees, after all. miruna.lebedencu@zf.ro